Thank you so much, again for your time, insight & ideas. I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm a little lost with the suggestions and fear I may have missed the boat a little in describing my daughter and trying to convey her interests, capabilities and what I'm looking for/needing. Although this will be a bit lengthy, please bare with me as I attempt to offer some clarity. I apologize in advance for any duplication of info I've provided previously. Christi is 30 and in addition to being blind she also has autism and a moderate developmental delay. She is also physically involved and has a trach, uses a vent at night, and doesn't have much mobility. She has been housebound for the past 3 years. She loves people, telling jokes, and all kinds of music from opera, to gospel, to kids, and anything with a loud beat. I've been on a mission for some time to find something that would provide stimulation, a little challenge, and that would hold her attention for more than 2 minutes.( After 3 years stuck in the house, she's pretty bored with all of her toys, games, etc.) She loves and does very well with knobs, buttons, etc. Has a great memory and learns placement and cause &effects quickly. (She's a smart cookie and doesn't miss a beat.) When we're on the computer together, I use a mouse to place the cursor in the appropriate area and then she makes/confirms the selection by clicking on her secondary trackball mouse. For more independence, I start a playlist of some kind, place the cursor on the Next Song icon, and then she clicks the mouse at her leisure to change the selection. She's always having me change the speed of music/videos she listens to on the computer...ranging from fast like chipmunks or slow like...well, a turtle.
She also likes me to change the pitch, speed, and type of voice (robot, whisper, adult, child) on the screen reading programs we use on the computer. (These are programs that read out loud whatever is typed or on the screen.) The graphic equalizer we use on the computer, has presets for Jazz, Live, Concert Hall, Rock, etc. that we change often. This would be another neat component of this "device" we looking for, but that's probably pushing it. Anyway, my "mission" began around Christmas when I was racking my brain to come up with just the right gift. I thought about how neat it would be if I could find something that had buttons, dials, etc, that would allow her to interact with/control different aspects of her music and videos by herself, rather than being dependent on someone else to do it for her. She has a couple of different kinds of speakers/amplifiers and set of headphones with a sub-woofer in them that we connect to various devices via RCA or headphone jacks. We also hook one of these up to her 8x8 sub-woofer so she can feel the vibration/air blowing out of the hole at the same time. She's constantly adjusting the volumes to try and get a different effect/sound. The equipment/device that I'm looking for would be for personal casual use at home just for fun not for recording purposes or actual DJing. If I understand what a mixer does....that it combines music from 2 different sources...this is probably not something she would be interested in doing. She plays around on a full size Casio keyboard sometimes, but only uses the demo buttons/songs and the "One-key play" where it plays a whole prerecorded song with her just hitting one key. The accuracy of the rhythm with which she plays the songs is pretty amazing. I don't think she'd be interested in a synthesizer as she's not into creating music, just making it sound different. Also, although a sound fx box? might have some components she might enjoy, I'm afraid she's become bored with it pretty quickly by itself. She also likes to use a microphone on occasion to sing with or talk over what's playing...and being the announcer with her favorite game of Name That Tune! As far as cost, it's probably not feasible, but I'd like to keep it around $100 if at all possible. I hope this additional information been helpful and not muddy'd the water with respect to our need. Please feel free to ask about anything I may have overlooked. I'm also willing to correspond /chat privately if it will be helpful. A sincere THANK YOU for your help!
Posted: 11 Feb 2015, 09:32